Brandi Glanville revealed that she has been spending thousands of dollars to figure out the cause behind her facial disfigurement. In a recent chat with Entertainment Tonight, the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills alum opened up about her tiring health struggle and frustration with not having a proper diagnosis for her deformed face. "Honestly, I have so many doctors and I’ve had so many tests. I did lab work for $10,000. They ran every test under the sun. They’re like, ‘It could be a parasite that’s new,’” she told the outlet. Glanville went on to say “I’ve been on meds this whole year. I don’t socialize. I don’t go out and I’m just spending all of my money on trying to figure out what’s wrong with me.” According to the TV personality, she has spent over "$70,000" on her treatment so far and is "stressed" out because of the condition. Moreover, she suspected the root cause for the skin problem she is facing stems back from her time in Morocco which she visited for the filming of Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip. “Six months after I got back from Morocco, I started having this speaking thing and the swelling up thing. It started in July and we’re still here trying to figure it out.” Earlier in December Glanville posted her selfie which sparked concern among fans about her health. Later the reality star explained on X account that she has been visiting hospitals to diagnose what is the root cause of her disfigured face.

No. 1 South Carolina women stunned by UCLA, ending Gamecocks’ 43-game win streak

Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info Meghan Markle 's former director has revealed what the Duchess of Sussex was like behind the scenes. Despite Meghan, 43, now taking on the role of executive producer alongside her hubby Prince Harry , 40, for their new Netflix series Polo, she's no stranger to the spotlight, having enjoyed a glittering acting career before her Royal wedding in 2018. While there have been whispers and claims about Meghan being "Duchess Difficult" from some quarters, Tim Matheson, a Hollywood stalwart who directed her in the hit show Suits back in 2011, has come forward with nothing but praise. Chatting with Fox Digital, as reported by GB News, he recalled Meghan as a total pro on set: "I never had to worry about a scene she was going to be in. I knew that she'd bring a performance that was just right." He added, "She was just lovely. The entire cast was wonderful, but especially her, there was just something about her. There was a sparkle, a little sparkle in her eye." Meghan may have been at the top of her game in Tinseltown, but she left it all behind to marry her prince in 2018 and join the ranks of the Royal Family – a chapter that ended in 2020 when the couple stepped back to carve out a financially independent life, away from the harsh glare of media scrutiny. Since relocating to the sun-soaked locale of Montecito in California, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been committed to their charity endeavours through their Archewell organisation. While Meghan hasn't made a comeback to her acting career, she's been increasingly seen gracing red carpet events and attending high-profile soirees, with Prince Harry focusing on philanthropic activities, reports the Express . In the midst of positive remarks circulating about Meghan, she's also faced a series of workplace accusations reported by The Hollywood Reporter, including claims from former staff members that she drove them to tears. On these allegations surfacing, the Sussexes' spokesperson robustly refuted the claims, saying: "Let's just call this what it is - a calculated smear campaign based on misleading and harmful misinformation. We are disappointed to see this defamatory portrayal of the Duchess of Sussex given credibility by a media outlet."A couple of Eastern Conference teams that had hopes of going to the NBA Finals meet up on Friday, Dec. 6 when the Boston Celtics host the Milwaukee Bucks at TD Garden in Boston. The game is scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. EST and will be broadcast on ESPN and ESPN Deportes . Fans looking to watch this NBA game can do so for free by using DirecTV Stream, which offers a free trial. You can also watch on FuboTV , which offers $30 off your first month, or SlingTV, which doesn’t offer a free trial but has promotional offers available . The Celtics are 18-4 and playing their fourth game in six days and first in a back-to-back that includes facing the Memphis Grizzlies on Saturday. Boston has a two-game winning streak going after knocking off Miami Heat and Detroit Pistons. The Bucks are 11-10 and looking to bounce back from a 119-104 loss to the Atlanta Hawks. Who: Milwaukee Bucks vs. Boston Celtics When: Friday, Dec. 6 at 7:30 p.m. EST Where: TD Garden in Boston Stream: FuboTV ; Sling ; DirecTV Stream (free trial) Betting: Check out our MA sports betting guide , where you can learn basic terminology, definitions and how to read odds for those interested in learning how to bet in Massachusetts. More College Football What is FuboTV? FuboTV is an internet television service that offers more than 200 channels across sports and entertainment including Paramount+ with SHOWTIME . From the UEFA Champions League to the WNBA to international tournaments ranging across sports, there’s plenty of options available on FuboTV, which offers $30 off the first month for new customers. What is DirecTV Stream? DirecTV Stream offers practically everything DirecTV provides, except for a remote and a streaming device to connect to your television. Sign up now and get three free months of premium channels including MAX , Paramount+ with SHOWTIME and Starz. What is SlingTV? SlingTV offers a variety of live programing ranging from news and sports and starting as low as $20 a month for your first month. Subscribers also get a month of DVR Plus free if they sign up now. Choose from a variety of sports packages without long-term contracts and with easy cancelation. RELATED CONTENT: ‘Embarrassing’: The Lakers have lost their last 2 games by a combined 70 points By TIM REYNOLDS AP Basketball Writer MIAMI (AP) — A 29-point loss in Minnesota on Monday. A 41-point loss in Miami on Wednesday. Add it up, and it’s the worst two-game stretch in Los Angeles Lakers history. The Lakers lost to the Heat 134-93 on Wednesday, that loss coming two days after a 109-80 loss to the Timberwolves. The 70-point margin is an all-time, two-game low for the Lakers; they were outscored by 67 over two separate two-game spans of the 2016-17 season. “It sucks, for sure, to get your (butt) whooped like that twice in a row,” Lakers star LeBron James said. “For sure.” The Lakers ran off a six-game winning streak last month to get to 10-4. They’re 2-6 since, four of those losses coming by 25 or more points. Wednesday was the low point; the 41-point loss was not only the worst of the season, but it marked only the 11th time in Lakers history — more than 6,800 games, including playoffs — that they’ve lost by more than 40. “I’m embarrassed,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “We’re all embarrassed.” Redick is now 12-10 in Year 1 as a coach, and this stretch has obviously been his toughest yet. He oscillated in his postgame remarks Wednesday between pointing the finger at himself — “I’ll take all the ownership in the world. This is my team and I lead it,” he said — and saying the team is having trouble with the simplest parts of the game plan. “There’s not a sense from me that we’re ‘together’ right now,” Redick said. “And that’s what we say in the huddle. Doesn’t feel that way. Doesn’t feel that way. We’re in a tough stretch and we’re all trying to find it.” Miami outscored the Lakers 72-15 from 3-point range — that 57-point differential tying the fourth-largest in NBA history. “We’re having trouble right now on both ends with like base-level gameplan stuff,” Redick said. “It’s odd. It’s very odd.” Anthony Davis had a season-low 12 points for the Lakers on Monday. He was four points worse on Wednesday on 3-for-14 shooting. “Guys are doing their part. I’m not doing mine, which is just tough for our team,” Davis said. “I just have to play better individually on both ends. I hold myself to a higher standard and I haven’t been doing what I needed to do — especially offensively for our team.” James said he agreed with everything Redick said, and Davis even echoed a word his coach used multiple times. “Embarrassing,” Davis said. James hopes the rest of the Lakers' locker room takes on that level of accountability. He insisted that 22 years in the league have taught him not to get too high when things are good or too low when things are bad. But back-to-back games like this represent something the likes of which he’s never dealt with. The Lakers play at Atlanta on Friday, go home to face Portland on Sunday and then get a few days off — the NBA Cup quarterfinals on Dec. 10 and 11 are a built-in break for the teams that didn’t advance to the knockout stage of that tournament — to practice and seek solutions. “When you’re individually (messing) up and you’re trying to rely on everybody else to cover for you, I think it starts with the individual first,” James said. “All of us have to take accountability.” The Associated Press contributed to this articleNonePure Storage and Kioxia Collaborate to Drive Scalability, Efficiency, and Performance in Hyperscale Data Centers

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Whether you’re walking to your car late at night, navigating busy streets or just going about your daily routine, feeling secure and prepared as a woman can make all the difference. Kepler Safety Keychains are designed to provide essential protection in your everyday life, offering women a sense of confidence wherever they go. This life-changing keychain , which retails from $59, is packed with features designed to help women protect themselves, stay safe, and navigate potentially dangerous situations. The Kepler Safety Keychain isn’t just an ordinary keychain; it’s a versatile, life-saving tool designed to help you stay safe in various situations. The keychain includes a 130db alarm which creates a loud, attention-grabbing noise that can help draw attention to your location and deter potential attackers. The alarm provides you with a crucial moment to escape or alert others to your situation. In the event of a car accident, the seatbelt cutter allows for a quick and easy escape by cutting through seatbelts. Demonstrated on the official Instagram page by founder Tyrelle, the seatbelt cutter takes just moments to release you from your hold. The keychain also features a discreet pen that doubles as a window breaker . This tool can be used in emergencies to shatter glass and escape from a vehicle or building, offering a quick solution to a potentially life-threatening situation. The keychain comes with a small pouch that holds a 10ml spray bottle, which you can fill with whatever you’d like. Kepler Safety Keychains are sleek and fashionable, so you don’t have to sacrifice style for safety. The compact design ensures it fits seamlessly into your daily routine, whether you’re out running errands or heading to work. Kepler Safety Keychains were born from a deeply personal experience. Tyrelle, the founder of Kepler, was once involved in a frightening altercation at her local shopping centre. In that moment, she felt unprepared and vulnerable, realising how important it was to have reliable tools for personal protection. It was that experience that inspired her to create a product that could help women feel more empowered and secure in their everyday lives. Since launching the business, Kepler has received countless messages from women sharing their own terrifying experiences. Many of them have expressed regret that products like the Kepler Safety Keychain weren’t available to them sooner. The founder’s hope is that these tools will allow women to feel equipped and empowered in situations where they might otherwise feel helpless. Not only are these keychains great for yourself, they also make an ideal stocking stuffer. I know that I will definitely be purchasing these keychains for all the women in my life this Christmas too. To purchase the keychains, head to Kepler’s website here.Hernandez 5-10 0-0 10, Levingston 5-8 0-0 10, Lagway 6-13 0-0 13, Stanton 3-9 3-4 9, Strachan 0-6 2-2 2, Falsdottir 2-5 1-2 7, Muniz 3-7 0-0 7, Totals 24-58 6-8 58 Daniels 3-9 2-5 8, Eke 0-1 0-0 0, Ladine 8-18 3-4 20, Sellers 4-7 1-2 9, Stines 3-9 0-0 7, Gillmer 2-5 0-0 5, McDonald 1-2 0-0 2, Briggs 0-1 0-0 0, Brown 1-1 0-0 3, Coppinger 2-6 2-2 8, Totals 24-59 8-13 62 3-Point Goals_Cal St.-Fullerton 4-9 (Lagway 1-2, Stanton 0-1, Falsdottir 2-2, Muniz 1-4), Washington 6-21 (Daniels 0-2, Ladine 1-5, Stines 1-6, Gillmer 1-3, Brown 1-1, Coppinger 2-4). Assists_Cal St.-Fullerton 12 (Hernandez 4), Washington 10 (Daniels 5). Fouled Out_Cal St.-Fullerton Levingston. Rebounds_Cal St.-Fullerton 25 (Lagway 7, Levingston 7), Washington 42 (Daniels 9). Total Fouls_Cal St.-Fullerton 16, Washington 17. Technical Fouls_None. A_1,575.

NASHVILLE — The Supreme Court on Wednesday will consider for the first time whether states can ban certain gender transition medical treatments for young people – a closely watched case brought by three transgender teens, their parents and a doctor, all seeking to ensure health care access they say is critical. At issue is a Tennessee law barring transgender minors from using puberty blockers and hormones, treatments the state characterizes as risky and unproven. Lawmakers said the state should instead encourage adolescents to “appreciate their sex, particularly as they undergo puberty.” The court’s ruling might have implications for the more than 100,000 transgender adolescents living in Tennessee or one of the 23 other states that has banned using the drugs to treat minors with gender dysphoria. The question of whether and how to medically treat young people whose gender identity is different than their sex assigned at birth has become a polarizing issue, one President-elect Donald Trump seized on in advertisements targeting transgender people during his campaign. The Supreme Court in 2020 extended employment protections to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender workers, but it has yet to rule on the constitutionality of lower court decisions involving bathroom access, athletes and medical treatment for transgender minors like 16-year-old L.W., one of the Tennessee teens behind the case at the high court. Her parents, Brian and Samantha Williams, now drive her five hours to receive care in North Carolina. The teen started gender care treatments when she was 12 and said they have allowed her to “get to be myself a little bit more.” “It took a huge stressor off my back,” L.W. said in an interview. “I have more friends now because I’m more confident, and I’m more able to socialize.” The Biden administration and the American Civil Liberties Union are representing the parents and teens, who are referred to in court filings by their initials or a pseudonym to protect their identity. The families say the Tennessee law amounts to unconstitutional sex discrimination and a broad restriction on treatments that nearly every major medical association says are appropriate and effective for minors. ACLU attorney Chase Strangio, who is arguing on behalf of the families, will be the first openly transgender lawyer to present a case before the Supreme Court. Tennessee’s Republican attorney general Jonathan Skrmetti says in court filings that states have long had the power to regulate medicine and that there is nothing unconstitutional about restricting the use of a drug for certain purposes, even when it can be used for treating other conditions, or imposing age limits for health treatments when the risks and rewards are too uncertain. One potential wild card in the resolution of the case is the incoming Trump administration and the possibility that the next solicitor general will flip the federal government’s position to align with Tennessee’s view. If that were to happen, the court could allow the ACLU to continue challenging the law on its own, which would keep the justices on track to issue a ruling by the end of June. Trump transition officials did not immediately respond to questions about the case before the court, but his team has said Trump intends to fulfill his campaign promises, which included a crackdown on gender transition care for minors. PATIENTS AND LAWMAKERS CLASH L.W. said she began to suspect she was trans in 2019, when she was 11. She’d long felt as if she were “drowning,” but she didn’t understand why. She wore baggy clothes to obscure her body, and she panicked the first time she saw a few facial hairs above her lip. She was so uncomfortable in boys bathrooms, she avoided ever using one at school. Eventually, she developed urinary tract infections. After a cousin came out as trans, L.W. began researching on YouTube and Google. But she was scared, so she didn’t tell her parents she thought she was trans until just after Thanksgiving in 2020, more than a year after she’d first put a name to her feelings. Brian and Samantha Williams both had gay friends, and they told L.W. they supported her, but neither felt comfortable immediately taking her to a doctor. L.W. was 12, and Brian worried the distress she felt might be normal puberty angst. “It’s not like we took this thing lightly and just did it,” Brian said. The family went to a progressive church, and the church had a therapist on staff who specialized in trans youth, so Samantha and Brian signed L.W. up for counseling. After roughly six months, the therapist diagnosed L.W. with gender dysphoria and recommended a team of doctors at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital. At Vanderbilt, L.W. underwent tests, then, in the summer of 2021, her doctors prescribed the drug Lupron to stop her body from going through male puberty. The medication, which has been used for at least 30 years on patients who start puberty too early, is largely reversible, but it can affect a young person’s bone density if taken long term without hormone therapy. The teen said she felt instantly relieved. To her, the benefits “strongly outweighed” any side effects. At the time, no state had banned trans adolescents from receiving the kind of care Vanderbilt’s team offered. Doctors nationwide had been treating a few thousand young people a year with hormones and puberty blockers, according to data compiled for Reuters – a tiny fraction of America’s adolescent population. They faced little pushback. Multiple peer-reviewed studies have found that a majority of trans adolescents experience “satisfaction,” “confidence” and “improvements in psychosocial functioning” after such treatment. Almost as soon as L.W. left her first appointment, she asked to start estrogen, but her doctors and her parents decided to wait. L.W. went in for regular evaluations, and in September 2022, more than a year after she started Lupron, her doctors agreed to prescribe estrogen. Hormone therapy made life feel possible in ways it never had before, L.W. said. She started hugging her family. She recorded music and built Lego models. She and her younger brother staged Airsoft matches with other teenagers. Neighbors even told Samantha that L.W. talked to them for the first time. L.W.’s journey felt personal to her, a singular distress followed by her own unique wins. But her time at Vanderbilt coincided with a historic rise in gender dysphoria diagnoses. In 2021, about 42,000 young people nationwide received a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, nearly triple the number in 2017, according to data the technology company Komodo Health Inc. compiled for Reuters. The vast majority were not prescribed hormones or puberty blockers, the data shows. Still, as the numbers rose, lawmakers and activists across the country began to raise questions about gender clinics and the treatments doctors were offering. The same month L.W. started estrogen, the conservative podcast host Matt Walsh accused Vanderbilt of castrating, sterilizing and mutilating children for profit. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) promised to investigate the hospital. That fall, Walsh and a group of Republican state legislators held a “Rally to End Child Mutilation” in downtown Nashville. Only Arkansas and Alabama had passed bans on transition-related care at that point. But lawmakers in other conservative states signaled that they intended to prioritize similar restrictions. In March 2023, Tennessee adopted the legislation now before the Supreme Court. The law, known as SB 1, prohibits health-care providers from prescribing any puberty blocker or hormone for the purpose of enabling a minor to identify or live as “a purported identity inconsistent with the minor’s sex.” Providers who violate the law can be fined $25,000 for each prohibited treatment and are subject to disciplinary measures and potential civil liability in private lawsuits. Throughout the hearings on the legislation, Republican lawmakers treated gender dysphoria as if it were an illusion. A co-sponsor of the House bill described transitioning as a “fiction” and “fantasy.” Another representative said, “If you don’t know what you are, a boy or girl, male or female, just go in the bathroom and take your clothes off and look in the mirror and you’ll find out.” The Williams family watched the hearings, and Brian was infuriated. The lawmakers didn’t know his daughter. He and Samantha had taken L.W. to experts. They’d had what felt like a million hard conversations, and they’d followed the best evidence available. “All of a sudden to have a state come down and say that that’s not the right thing to do, that’s it’s abusive, that it’s wrongheaded, it’s just infuriating because I feel like I’m doing all the right stuff,” Brian said. EXPERIMENTATION OR DISCRIMINATION? After the bill became law, everyone in the Williams family agreed that discontinuing care wasn’t an option. L.W. was happy in ways she’d never been before she transitioned. If she stopped taking puberty blockers and estrogen, her body would begin to go through male puberty. She told her parents that was too painful to contemplate, let alone experience. Moving didn’t feel possible either. L.W.’s brother sobbed every time he thought about leaving his friends, and Brian’s elderly parents live in Nashville and rely on his help. That spring, Samantha saw an ACLU form that invited families to describe how they’d been affected by the legislation. She didn’t imagine, as she filled out the form, that she was signing up for a lawsuit that would eventually make its way to the Supreme Court. She only knew that she wanted to protect her daughter and she didn’t want to feel helpless anymore. Tennessee gave families four months to wean kids like L.W. off the medications, but in June, before the ban even took effect, Vanderbilt shut down its clinic. In June 2023, a District Court judge temporarily blocked the law, saying it discriminates based on sex and treats some teens differently because they are transgender. The judge said the benefits of the treatments are well-established and noted that Tennessee’s law bans the medications for a small subset of minors while making them available for adolescents who use them for other health issues. “If Tennessee wishes to regulate access to certain medical procedures,” wrote U.S. District Judge Eli Richardson, a Trump nominee, “it must do so in a manner that does not infringe on the rights conferred by the United States Constitution, which is of course supreme to all other laws of the land.” A divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit soon reversed Richardson’s decision, rejecting the families’ claims of discrimination and allowing the state to enforce the law while litigation continues. Chief Judge Jeffrey Sutton said the law regulates gender transition treatments for all minors, regardless of sex, and concluded that Tennessee lawmakers could have rationally determined that the law was an appropriate response to perceived risks associated with the treatments. Sutton, a nominee of George W. Bush, also said courts should be wary of intervening in a highly contested political dispute. Judge Helene N. White, another Bush nominee, agreed with the majority that the Constitution envisions states acting as laboratories for democracies to resolve political debates, but dissented from the majority ruling. “When a fundamental right or freedom from discrimination is involved, experimentation has no place,” she wrote. At the Supreme Court, Solicitor General Elizabeth B. Prelogar is asking the justices to return the case to the 6th Circuit to apply a more stringent level of review, which she says should be triggered by a law that discriminates based on sex. The state, she wrote, ignores the benefits of gender-transition care and overstates the health risks. She also said the law’s stated goal of having teens “appreciate their sex” is based on stereotypical understandings of gender and cannot be used to justify the ban. Skrmetti, the Tennessee attorney general, said the state has the authority to protect minors from the risks of gender-transition treatment, and the federal government should not discount lawmakers’ concerns. He also objected to Prelogar’s characterization of the law as driven by stereotypes. It is not unconstitutional discrimination, Skrmetti argued, to say that drugs can be prescribed for one reason, but not another. L.W. will be in the courtroom on Wednesday, but she said she can’t comprehend the gravity of the case she’s a part of. Mostly, she has tried to continue to live the life gender care has made possible. The day the ACLU filed its petition, she went to high school, and she only told a few people in the Gender-Sexualities Alliance, or GSA, about the case. That night, she worried, briefly, that her name would be on a case that might be remembered along the same lines as Plessy v. Ferguson, the 1896 Supreme Court case that ruled it was constitutional for states to enact segregation laws. Eventually, L.W. decided it was out of her control, and plus, she had the drivers’ test for her learner’s permit to worry about, so she set aside her fears and let her lawyers handle the hard parts. She is a junior in high school now. She DJed a party this Halloween. She has broadened her social life, and she adopted a kitten the family named Mushroom. She wants to spend her free time traveling to look at colleges with aviation programs, but for now, she and her mother still make regular trips to get treatment in North Carolina. Traveling out of state for health-care she’d rather get at home is arduous. Until recently, her mother had to take unpaid time off work, and L.W. has to call in sick to the magnet high school where she takes three Advanced Placement classes. “I hate taking days off school, it’s, like, the worst thing ever,” she said. “I have very, very difficult classes. So I’ve got a lot to catch up on if I miss a single day.” The drive used to take five hours each way, but Hurricane Helene washed out one of the roads they take, and now, the journey will be much longer. Comments are not available on this story. Send questions/comments to the editors. « Previous Next »CHECK OUT: Education is Your Right! Don’t Let Social Norms Hold You Back. Learn Online with LEGIT. Enroll Now! A final round of talks on a treaty to end plastic pollution opens on Monday, with the diplomat chairing the difficult negotiations warning nations not to miss a "once-in-a-generation opportunity". Plastic pollution is so ubiquitous that it has been found in clouds, the deepest ocean trenches and even in human breastmilk. And while almost everyone agrees it is a problem, there is less consensus on how to solve it. Nations have just a week in South Korea's Busan to solve thorny issues including whether to cap plastic production, a possible ban on chemicals feared toxic to human health, and how to pay for the treaty. "There are some real differences on some key elements," UN Environment Programme chief Inger Andersen acknowledged Sunday in a meeting with observers at the talks. "I believe that we absolutely can land this, but that it will take everybody shuffling a little bit into the bus," she said. Read also Petrol industry embraces plastics while navigating energy shift PAY ATTENTION: Legit.ng Needs Your Help! Take our Survey Now and See Improvements at LEGIT.NG Tomorrow In 2019, the world produced around 460 million tonnes of plastic, a figure that has doubled since 2000, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Plastic production is expected to triple by 2060. More than 90 percent of plastic is not recycled, with over 20 million tonnes leaking into the environment, often after just a few minutes of use. Plastic also accounts for around three percent of global emissions, mostly linked to its production from fossil fuels. 'Once-in-a-generation' Some countries, including the so-called High Ambition Coalition (HAC) that groups many African, Asian and European nations, want to discuss the entire "lifecycle" of plastics. That means limiting production, redesigning products for reuse and recycling, and addressing waste. On the other side are countries, largely oil producers like Saudi Arabia and Russia, who want a downstream focus on waste alone. The HAC wants binding global targets on reducing production and warned ahead of the Busan talks that "vested interests" should not be allowed to hamper a deal. Read also Climate finance's 'new era' shows new political realities The divisions have stymied four previous rounds of talks, producing an unwieldy document of over 70 pages. Luis Vayas Valdivieso, the diplomat chairing the talks, has produced an alternative document intended to synthesise the views of delegations and move negotiations forward. It is a more manageable 17 pages, and highlights areas of agreement, including the need to promote reusability. However, it leaves the thorniest issues largely unaddressed, angering some more ambitious nations and environmental groups. Valdivieso nonetheless insisted on Sunday that "a shared understanding has been emerging," while reminding nations they have just 63 working hours in a "crucial week" to land a deal. "This treaty is a once-in-a-generation opportunity," he said. 'Treaty people are demanding' Some observers believe the talks are likely to falter and be extended -- especially after the difficult negotiations at UN climate and biodiversity conferences in recent weeks. But both Andersen and Valdivieso insist a deal must be reached in Busan. That has some environmental groups worried that an agreement will be watered down to ensure something is signed. Read also Cheers, angst as US nuclear plant Three Mile Island to reopen Key to any accord will be the United States and China, neither of which have openly sided with either bloc. Earlier this year, Washington raised hopes among environmentalists by signalling support for some limits on production, a position that is reportedly now being rowed back. The election of Donald Trump has also raised questions about how ambitious the US delegation will be, and whether negotiators should even bother seeking their support if a treaty is unlikely to be ratified by Washington. Some plastic producers are pushing governments to focus on waste management and reusability, warning production caps would cause "unintended consequences". But others back a deal with global standards, including on "sustainable" production levels. Hours before the talks opened, environmental groups presented officials with a petition signed by nearly three million people urging a legally binding treaty. "Governments can and must create the treaty people are demanding," said Eirik Lindebjerg, WWF global plastics policy lead. Read also 'Moment of truth' for world-first plastic pollution treaty "One which decisively and definitely protects people and nature now and for generations to come." PAY ATTENTION: Сheck out news that is picked exactly for YOU ➡️ find the “Recommended for you” block on the home page and enjoy! Source: AFP

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Fijian economy projected to expand by 3.8 percent this year

This photo shows Hana Bank's dealing room in Seoul, Dec. 3. Yonhap Stock markets will open as usual Wednesday, the finance ministry said, following President Yoon Suk Yeol's unexpected declaration of emergency martial law overnight, which was subsequently lifted. The decision was made during an emergency meeting held earlier in the day between Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok and top economic and financial officials, according to the ministry. The benchmark KOSPI and the tech-heavy KOSDAQ markets are scheduled to open at 9 a.m. and close at 3:30 p.m. The decision came as the foreign exchange market and overseas Korean stock-related markets, which had displayed instability following Yoon's surprise declaration, began to stabilize after the measure was lifted only hours later, the ministry said. Korea lifts martial law, relieving some market uncertainty 2024-12-04 07:05 | Markets The South Korean won slid to as low as 1,441 per dollar during offshore trading hours following the declaration late Tuesday. The won recovered slightly to close at 1,415.8 won. The KOSPI 200 overnight futures index also faced significant losses, sinking more than 5 percent during the session before closing with a 1.8 percent drop. Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok reassured investors, pledging that the government would take every possible measure to stabilize the financial and foreign exchange markets, including providing unlimited liquidity if necessary. The ministry also emphasized its commitment to market stability, stating that a governmentwide monitoring system is in place to closely observe financial market conditions. (Yonhap)

Seibert misses an extra point late as the Commanders lose their 3rd in a row, 34-26 to the Cowboys LANDOVER, Md. (AP) — Austin Seibert missed his second extra point of the game with 21 seconds left after Washington’s Jayden Daniels and Terry McLaurin connected on an 86-yard touchdown, Dallas’ Juanyeh Thomas returned the ensuing onside kick attempt for a touchdown, and the Cowboys pulled out a 34-26 victory Sunday that extended the Commanders’ skid to three games. Seibert was wide left on the point-after attempt following a bad snap. On the ensuing onside kick attempt, Juanyeh Thomas returned it 43 yards for a touchdown as the Cowboys ended their losing streak at five in improbable fashion. Earlier in the fourth quarter, KaVonte Turpin returned a kickoff 99 yards for a TD.President-elect Donald Trump mockingly referred to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as the governor of the “Great State of Canada” on his social media account early Tuesday. Trump said in a taunting post on Truth Social it was a “pleasure to have dinner” with Trudeau at his Mar-a-Lago estate and that he looks forward to seeing the “governor again soon” to talk tariffs and trade, the “results of which will be truly spectacular for all.” Turns out, some Canadians think that’s not such a bad idea. A new Leger poll suggests 13 per cent of Canadians would like the country to become the next U.S. state. The demographic breakdowns show there’s higher support among men, at 19 per cent, compared with only seven per cent of women. Conservative party supporters came in at 21 per cent, while one in 10 Liberal voters said they were in favour of the idea. The People’s Party of Canada showed the highest level of endorsement among the federal parties, at 25 per cent, while the NDP was the lowest at six per cent. A full 82 per cent of respondents said they were opposed to the idea. People in the Atlantic provinces, women and Canadians over the age of 55 were least likely to support it. “I’m not shocked,” said Andrew Enns, executive vice-president of central Canada at Leger. While it’s not a question he’s polled on before, since it’s not normal for U.S. presidents to openly muse about snatching up bordering countries as new states, the survey results follow some familiar patterns. “Women have, for quite some time, whenever Donald Trump’s name has come up, expressed a much stronger opposition to the individual,” he said. “But again, we are talking about fairly small (support). In the Prairies, for example, it’s still less than 20 per cent that would say, yes, they’d be open to joining the United States.” Leger surveyed 1,520 people between Dec. 6 and Dec. 9, and the results do not have a margin of error since online polls aren’t considered truly random samples. The survey was also done before Trump made his post on Tuesday. Enns said he suspects Trump doubling down on the comments will further shrink the already limited public support by pushing the joke past the point of comfort. Immigration Minister Marc Miller expressed dismay when reporters asked him about it ahead of a federal cabinet meeting Tuesday. “It sounds like we’re living in an episode of South Park,” he said. “I don’t think we should necessarily look on Truth Social for public policy.” The provocative 1999 South Park animated film notably featured a song called “Blame Canada!” about Americans scapegoating their northern neighbours for their own domestic problems. Miller and other cabinet members have written off Trump’s comments as anything but serious. “Clearly, he’s joking,” Defence Minister Bill Blair said Tuesday. “We’re a sovereign nation.” Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc attended Trudeau’s surprise dinner with Trump at Mar-a-Lago last month, which came soon after the president-elect threatened to impose a 25 per cent tariff on imports unless Canada beefs up its border. LeBlanc has insisted Trump was only teasing when at the dinner he suggested he could make Canada the 51st U.S. State. “The president was telling jokes,” LeBlanc said a week ago. “The president was teasing us. It was, of course, on that issue in no way a serious comment.” Trump later shared a seemingly AI-generated image of himself standing on a mountain ridge with a Canadian flag planted in it, with the caption “Oh Canada!” Trudeau has not matched that tone, warning in a talk on Monday that the steep tariffs Trump is bandying about would be devastating for the Canadian economy. He described Trump’s approach as an attempt to destabilize negotiating partners by introducing a bit of chaos. Trudeau blew past the TV cameras on his way into Tuesday’s cabinet meeting without stopping to talk to reporters. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, meanwhile, deflected questions about whether she thinks Trump is serious about taking over her country. “That is a question, really, for the president-elect,” she said.

ARLINGTON, Va. , Dec. 6, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The Board of Directors of The AES Corporation (NYSE: AES) approved an increase of 2% in the Company's quarterly common stock dividend, from $0.1725 per share to $0.17595 per share, beginning in the first quarter of 2025. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.Few tech-industry traditions are as time-honored as vaporware : stuff that gets publicly demoed well before it’s ready to ship. In some cases, the companies in question are just slower to finish their work than they’d expected. Other times, they’re strategically drumming up enthusiasm for something new and shiny to distract customers from competitive offerings. Either way, any gratification involved is delayed, assuming the product ever ships at all—which is not a given . The high-stakes intensity of the current battle of the tech giants for AI supremacy has led to countless launches that remain vaporous for at least a while, a dynamic I wrote about back in May . So it’s no shock that two new Google creations, Project Astra and Project Mariner, aren’t shipping products. For now, Google DeepMind , the company’s AI research arm, is only making them available to a small pool of hand-selected “trusted testers.” In fact, the “Project” in their names indicates that they’re showcases for work in progress rather than actual products. And yet, dismissing them as mere vaporware feels unfair. Google is being quite clear about its goals for Astra and Mariner—which is to get a better feel for how people might use new forms of AI before springing them on millions or billions of unprepared humans. Particularly given some of the travails the company has had with AI features that were seemingly undertested before release, it’s the responsible thing to do. Both projects fall into general AI categories also being ardently pursued by other companies. Astra, which Google first demoed at its I/O developer conference in May, is the company’s vision of a next-generation AI assistant—not an inflexible and limited piece of software like Google Assistant , or a text-centric chatbot like the Gemini app , but a helper that listens, speaks, and sees your world. It’s roughly akin to the version of ChatGPT Advanced Voice Mode that OpenAI unveiled in May—though that product’s camera-enabled features are still vaporware as I write this. (Maybe that will change before OpenAI’s current 12-day advent calendar of “Shipmas” announcements is over.) Project Mariner, meanwhile, is a Chrome extension that can use websites for you, typing and clicking on its own to accomplish tasks you’d otherwise perform yourself. It’s in the same conceptual zip code as Anthropic’s “Computer Use” feature, which debuted as part of its Claude large language model in October and lets that chatbot control apps. Both are steps toward one of the tech industry’s biggest current obsessions: agentic AI that can work more independently on your behalf. What Google learns from Astra and Mariner could matter as much to the quality of the experiences it builds as to the raw capabilities of its Gemini large language model—yet another sign that the AI rubber has hit the road. “Academic benchmarks are important, but nowadays, when we say something is best in class, what we mean is, do the users find it best in class?” says Google DeepMind CTO Koray Kavukcuoglu. “The model’s capability has to be merged with the way the application works and is useful. That’s a change for all the researchers.” That basic reality was reflected in the demos I saw during a recent visit to Google. Running on an Android phone and utilizing its camera, Astra recognized images of paintings, such as Edvard Munch’s The Scream , and answered questions such as, “If I like this, what other artists might I like?” It also scanned the spines and covers of books in a scientific library to help pick among them and read, and summarized two pages of information in a travel book. What it had to say seemed roughly comparable in intelligence to what you might coax out of the Gemini chatbot in a text-based conversation, and wasn’t always dazzling when judged purely by the information it conveyed. For instance, when I pointed the phone at a shelf of books about hearing and asked Astra to recommend a good introduction to the psychology of hearing, it picked one titled . . . Introduction to the Psychology of Hearing . Shown six bottles of wine and asked which one went best with beef Bourguignon, it rhapsodized about a pinot noir—“a superb pairing!” Even I, a guy who knows nothing about wine, could have figured that out on my own. Still, Astra’s spoken interface and ability to see the world around it made for a far richer experience than typing prompts into a chatbot. (It might get even richer if Astra eventually runs on AR glasses as well as phones, a scenario Google is working on .) At one point, after the app misunderstood the question about beef Bourguignon—it thought it involved coq au vin—it not only apologized, but did so with an embarrassed half laugh. Maybe that falls well short of OpenAI’s quest to turn the movie Her into everyday life , but it’s an example of simulated humanity we never got from Google Assistant or Siri. Among the goals of Astra’s controlled testing is to give Google DeepMind’s safety team the opportunity to chime in on exactly how much personality the software should exhibit. “We think a lot about anthropomorphism—what is and isn’t appropriate—because we are not trying to build someone to replace the humans in someone’s life,” says Google DeepMind senior director of responsibility Helen King. Along with that, the team is also assessing such obvious issues as the privacy concerns raised by an AI assistant that sees what you see and has a superhuman photographic memory. For now, Google DeepMind has decided that Astra should only remember the most recent 10 minutes of video it’s captured. Project Mariner is in an even earlier stage of exploration. In one of the demos I saw, it read a salmon teriyaki recipe in a Google Doc and then complied with the request of director of product management Jaclyn Konzelmann to go off to Safeway’s site, find the necessary vegetables, and place them in a shopping cart. It took several minutes to perform this task and painstakingly explained what it was doing in a pane next to the browser window. For now, Mariner can’t see the shopping process through to actually placing an order, which—considering scenarios like AI getting confused and accidentally buying 10,000 onions, or maybe even doing so on purpose—is probably just as well. The point of Mariner’s cautious approach, Konzelmann told me, is to err on the side of transparency and avoid potential problems: “We just think it’s really important at this stage of where this research prototype is to keep the human front and center and able to control what’s happening.” Of course, tech enthusiasts might think it’s kind of cool to have AI help with tasks such as veggie shopping even if it doesn’t save any time. Indeed, King told me that Google’s trusted testers skew more toward AI expertise than the general population, so the company can learn only so much from them. “At the moment, they’ve mostly been those who are familiar [with AI] because we’re in such early stages,” she says. “But as we expand, it’s really important for us to have that mix of civil society and academia—the experts in that as well, and the broader public. Because we want our tools to be able to be used by everyone, not just those who already have that AI literacy.” Everyone I spoke with during my Google visit emphasized that Astra and Mariner will evolve further as the company learns how outsiders use them. “The whole team is configured in such a way that we can do this kind of exploration quite fast, and that’s the journey we’ve been on,” says Kavukcuoglu. The proof of their value will be in the AI features Google eventually ships. But they do seem promising as a way to make some initial headway. READ/LISTEN/WATCH/TRY The news, as picked by your friends. A decade ago, I wrote about Nuzzel , a wonderful app that curated new articles on the web using a strikingly simple yet effective algorithm: It showed you ones that had been shared by people you followed on Twitter. After being acquired by a company that was itself acquired by Twitter, Nuzzel shut down. But a new service called Sill feels like Nuzzel reborn, except that it uses the people you follow on Bluesky and/or Mastodon to find its news. It, too, is wonderful, and yet another good reason to use these social networks . Apple being born. Last week, I recommended The Verge’ s list of the best tech books of all time—but said most of my favorites weren’t on it. So from time to time, at least, I’ll share some of them here. There have been more books about Apple than any other tech company, yet the very first one— Michael Moritz’s The Little Kingdom: The Private Story of Apple Computer —remains one of the best. It’s a fun, funny, intimate look at the company and founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, which was published in 1984, before the Apple story got so sprawling that it tended to overwhelm many of the authors who tried to tell it. Moritz, then a Time reporter, went on to become a famed venture capitalist but revisited his book in 2009 in a new edition called Return to the Little Kingdom . Sadly, it seems to have fallen out of print again, even as an e-book, but both the original and updated versions are available at the Internet Archive. You’ve been reading Plugged In, Fast Company ’s weekly tech newsletter from me, global technology editor Harry McCracken. If a friend or colleague forwarded this edition to you—or if you’re reading it on FastCompany.com—you can check out previous issues and sign up to get it yourself every Wednesday morning. I love hearing from you: Ping me at hmccracken@fastcompany.com with your feedback and ideas for future newsletters. I’m also happy to hear from you on Bluesky , Mastodon , or Threads . More top tech stories from ‘Fast Company’ In defense of being ‘extremely online.’ The creator economy by the numbers Richard Florida maintains that in a time filled with loneliness, isolation, and alienation, the digital creator economy provides hundreds of millions of people with a source of meaning, purpose, community, and much-needed income. Read More → Why olive oil girl is TikTok’s main character TikTok user Megan Chacalos recalled a high school mishap involving an olive oil hair mask. What happened from there, you couldn’t make this up. Read More → How Big Tech labor organizers aim to unite for Trump 2.0 Supercharged during the first Trump administration, tech-worker activism faces new challenges and motivations as the 47th president heads to Washington. Read More → Reddit rolls out its own AI-powered search tool after cracking down on AI companies Reddit’s RDDT stock jumped 4% by mid-afternoon on Monday in response to the new AI search tool. Read More → Amtrak’s sleek new high-speed electric trains are coming next spring Taking the train from D.C. to Boston is about to get nicer—and a little faster. Read More → 4 browser-boosting ChatGPT Chrome extensions Save time and work more efficiently with these AI-powered extensions for web searching, writing, summarizing, and beyond. Read More → The extended deadline for Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas Awards is this Friday, December 13, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply today.

Riley Sees Additional Financial Advisors Exiting The FirmGame and Fish announces closure of North Dakota otter trapping season

SHENZHEN, China , Dec. 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- On November 26, 2024 , Access Advance LLC ("AA") and TCL Electronics Holdings Limited ("TCL" or "Client") announced that TCL had officially joined the HEVC Advance Patent Pool as a licensee. PurpleVine IP Group ("PurpleVine") played a pivotal role in this achievement, providing full-spectrum services, including strategic planning, global litigation management, and licensing negotiation support. PurpleVine's efforts were instrumental in helping TCL finalize agreements with AA and multiple HEVC Advance licensors, resolving years of complex global litigation over HEVC standard-essential patents("SEPs"). Since 2021, leading HEVC Advance licensors - including Dolby, GEVC, Philips, Mitsubishi Electric, JVCKENWOOD, NEC, ETRI, and IP Bridge - have filed dozens of infringement lawsuits and sought injunctions against TCL across jurisdictions such as Germany , the Unified Patent Court (UPC) in Europe , and Brazil . PurpleVine provided TCL with a comprehensive defense strategy tailored to each jurisdiction. Working closely with local counsel, the PurpleVine team devised FRAND-compliant arguments, non-infringement defenses, and patent invalidation strategies that not only neutralized injunction threats but also achieved an outstanding success rate of over 90% in invalidating asserted patents during first-instance rulings. PurpleVine also spearheaded counteractions against AA and HEVC Advance licensors in multiple jurisdictions, including China , Brazil , and Germany . Notably, PurpleVine assisted TCL in filing two landmark cases in Chinese courts - one challenging SEP licensing rates and another alleging abuse of market dominance. These cases were the first in the world where courts asserted jurisdiction over SEP pool licensing rates and alleged monopolistic practices, setting a groundbreaking legal precedent. Daniel Fu , General Counsel of TCL, stated, "We are pleased to have signed a license with Access Advance's HEVC patent pool, with the help of PurpleVine IP. The transaction is beneficial to the licensing ecosystem and the development of cutting-edge technologies for the welfare of consumers." This multi-jurisdictional case, involving complex legal challenges, spanning several years, highlights PurpleVine's expertise in managing high-stakes IP disputes. PurpleVine's strategic leadership, effective litigation management, and skilled negotiations reaffirm its position as a leading provider of cross-border intellectual property services. About PurpleVine IP Group PurpleVine IP Group, based in Shenzhen, China , is a leading intellectual property service provider with a global perspective. The firm offers one-stop IP services, including patent and trademark prosecution, analysis, global transactions, licensing negotiations, and dispute resolution. The core members of PurpleVine's litigation and dispute resolution team have backgrounds in top international law firms and leading corporate legal departments. They have managed patent litigation and invalidation cases in over 50 courts worldwide. The firm also includes SEP (Standard Essential Patent) experts from the telecommunications industry, who have been involved in hundreds of patent licensing negotiations and litigations. SOURCE PurpleVine IP

Four members of Congress unveiled a bipartisan bill Friday that would spark changes at the U.S. Center for SafeSport, placing a time limit on resolving cases that can sometimes take years and improving communication between the center and abuse survivors. The Safer Sports for Athletes Act looks to address some of the bigger concerns that have opened the center to criticism since it was established in 2017 to handle sex-abuse cases in Olympic sports and their grassroots cousins. The bill has potential for a fivefold increase of an existing grant to the center, bringing it to $10 million a year. But even if the full amount were approved, it wouldn't solve all of the problems. As before, that grant can only be used for training and education , not investigations and enforcement, which are the focus of complaints about the center , and also of the reforms the lawmakers are seeking. “We’re hoping the combination of appropriations for other activities will free up money for investigations, as well as the streamlining,” said one of the bill's sponsors, Rep. Deborah Ross, D-North Carolina. The center estimates the reforms in the bill could cost more than $4.5 million. It currently operates on a budget of around $21 million a year, most of which comes from the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and its sports affiliates, known as national governing bodies, or NGBs. “It's really unclear, and I don't think that some parts of the bill jibe with other parts of the bill," SafeSport CEO Ju'Riese Colon said. "We're going to need some more conversation to suss out some of this stuff. Right now, it just doesn't really add up for us.” The center's critics, meanwhile, have long been skeptical about giving more resources to an agency they feel is missing the mark. The bill would also mandate that investigations be concluded within 180 days after a report is made, with possibilities to extend them. Some of the most egregious complaints about the center have come from people who say it has taken years for their cases to be resolved. The center currently receives about 155 reports a week, which comes to more than 8,000 a year. When fully staffed, it has 77 people on its response and resolution team. “Too many other survivors have also been left waiting for years for SafeSport to investigate or have their cases closed without action,” said soccer player Mana Shim, who helped lawmakers draft the bill. Shim's own case, involving sexual harassment and coercion by her coach, took more than two years for the center to resolve and led to investigations and reforms across American soccer. Other reforms include a requirement for the center to provide victim advocates at no cost for those needing them — a move already underway as part of a menu of changes the center announced earlier this year — and to assign case managers who can give timely updates to victims and the accused. “I have questions around, if the center were to hire and staff the advocates, there might be some conflict of interest with us doing this internally," Colon said. The center was also concerned with one provision that would redefine how arbitration works and another that would change the dynamics of information sharing between the center and the USOPC and NGBs. The other bill sponsors were Reps. Dave Joyce, R-Ohio; Don Bacon, R-Nebraska; and Kathy Castor, D-Florida. The lawmakers positioned the bill as one that will help the Denver-based center, while making clear they are not satisfied with the results so far. “We're going to make sure the center has the resources it needs to effectively respond to thousands of reports it handles annually,” Castor said. “It has unfortunately fallen short." Ross conceded this bill will probably get pushed to the next Congress, which convenes Jan. 3, “but we needed to set the stage as soon as possible.” AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-gamesElection day coverage is presented by 24ora.com and TREMPAN, in collaboration with Diario TV, with live broadcasts from the Embassy Suites studio. During the broadcast, the team of presenters spoke with various well-known figures from the community. Among them was Tisa LaSorte, the Chief Executive Officer of AHATA (Aruba Hotel and Tourism Association), a key stakeholder in the island’s tourism industry. LaSorte discussed the critical role tourism plays as the backbone of Aruba’s economy. In 2024, a shift in perspective emerged within the Aruba community, with growing sentiment against further hotel development. The idea of “no more hotels” has gained traction, drawing attention from tourism sector executives and AHATA alike. “We understand the concerns in the community about the rapid pace of tourism development, especially with the rise of Airbnb. In fact, several thousand new rooms have been added through this platform over the past year,” LaSorte explained. This shift in perspective has led to discussions about achieving more balanced tourism, a view that is gaining support within the community. While discussions about a tourism moratorium have been ongoing for years, there is a consensus that any such decision must be backed by a clear, actionable plan. “The economy must grow in quality, not just in numbers, and we need a concrete plan for how to achieve that,” LaSorte stressed. She emphasized the importance of understanding what lies at the heart of a balanced tourism strategy, particularly regarding whether the government should control the number of incoming tourists. For AHATA, the focus remains on quality growth in tourism. LaSorte advocates for incentives to encourage investment and improve tourism products. There is also a need for a dedicated team focused on fostering quality tourism. One of the key issues that needs to be addressed is the regulation of vacation rentals, with many decisions still pending. However, it is clear that laws will need to be adapted or introduced to manage this area. This is one of the priorities for the new Aruba government. Another pressing issue is the ongoing labor shortage, which has led to workers moving from one company to another. This shortage is not limited to the hotel or construction sectors but is affecting multiple industries across the island. AHATA agrees with the need to legalize foreign workers, but LaSorte pointed out that this is not a complete solution. “There needs to be a strong emphasis on training for those looking to enter the hotel sector,” she said. Although the political leadership in Aruba may not yet fully reflect this shift in tourism thinking, LaSorte remains hopeful, noting that many successful women are already making an impact in Aruba. However, entering the political arena is not an easy path. “It’s not a pleasant field to be in, and you need strong convictions to succeed. Furthermore, politicians often have to choose between competing responsibilities. A politician must be someone with a deep commitment to moving Aruba forward, whether man or woman,” LaSorte concluded.Oyo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has condemned the alleged takeover by the state government of structures housing public reading and learning facilities in the Dugbe area of Ibadan, the state capital. APC described the planned conversion of the structures into lock up shops and shopping malls as not only shameful and ill-conceived, but also grossly unacceptable. The party, in a statement to LEADERSHIP on Sunday in Ibadan by its State Publicity Secretary, Olawale Sadare, also raised the alarm over alleged sale of the modern motor park at Wema Area on New Ife Road in Ibadan. APC recalled that the park was built by the administration of late Senator Abiola Ajimobi when he was governor of the state. Citing an unnamed source, Oyo APC alleged that the Park has been sold to a pastor who presides over a popular church situated very close to the facility. It recalled that not a few residents of Ibadan, the state capital, were stunned recently when they observed sudden erection of massive structures believed to be private business complexes and shopping malls within the premises of the Oyo State Library Board in which the the defunct Western Region government built public libraries and other facilities being put into premium use by students, researchers, tourists among others until now. Sadare said, “It is a sad reality that the buildings which used to serve as public libraries and archive in Dugbe axis of Ibadan have now paved the way for the development of commercial and business structures and the implication of this is that education and research development have been relegated to the background in the state by the same administration which has refused to address the issue of poor reading culture among young students. “Without mincing words, the word ‘library’ is now strange to many students in public primary and secondary schools in Oyo State because a government does not care to build such facility or fix the existing ones which require good attention.” The party wondered how a government would wake up one day and convert public reading facilities and archives into lock up shops “in the name of making money and thereby subject the entire society into the danger of illiteracy and ignorance.” It added that, “It has also got to that stage when silence is no more golden as all well meaning individuals and stakeholders should begin to ask Governor (Seyi) Makinde questions on why he keeps selling off public heritage and properties which his government inherited from previous administrations.” In the same vein, Oyo APC questioned alleged lease or concession of public facilities to those it called proxies “as it happened to OYSADEP Guest House in Saki and Agbowo Shopping Complex in Ibadan.” The APC expressed sadness on the activities of the governor and a few other individuals around him, alleging their involvement in mismanagement of land and others resources belonging to the state which it noted to have paved the way for the surge in the cases of land grabbing in most parts of Ibadan, the state capital. The main opposition party in the state added that there many cases of land grabbing involving some appointees of the governor, PDP lawmakers, serving local government officials and chieftains of the ruling party. The statement maintained that “this trend has to stop now.”